In a finite element model, it may be desirable to create a fine mesh on a certain region and successively coarser meshes elsewhere (for example, in a multi-scale analysis). In other cases, some regions may be meshed with free-form tetrahedral elements while other regions are meshed with brick elements. It is often a challenge to connect these regions with dissimilar meshes together.

In ADINA 8.3, a powerful new glue-mesh feature makes it easy to connect regions with dissimilar meshes. This feature is illustrated in the simple 2-D example below. The yellow lines in the figure indicate where the meshes are glued together.

Mesh glueing can also be applied to 3-D meshes as illustrated below. Note that regions with free-form tetrahedral meshes can also be glued to regions with mapped brick meshes.